An Honest Mistake
by Warriorette12
Summary: When you're learning a new language, its inevitable that you'll be misunderstood at some point. This is about Victor learning Japanese and the changing of a single syllable confuses everyone. (Fic request by Shiranai Atsune)


**Well, I got a fic request with the prompt of 'misunderstandings' and I decided to run with it. As someone who has been learning Japanese for a few years, this is a mix-up I _still_ deal with every once in a while. To get the whole joke, you should know that, in Japanese, _kirai_ means to 'hate/strongly dislike' and _kirei_ means 'pretty/beautiful/neat'.**

 **Enjoy!**

Really, it was an honest slip-up.

How was Victor supposed to know, though? He'd been learning Japanese for about two months, given that he could only get so far in Hasetsu with English, and he seemed to be doing well enough. Besides, he was in the perfect environment to practice. As many mistakes as he made, he knew that he'd be corrected without derision if he pronounced anything wrong or used a word incorrectly. Yuuri and his family had been encouraging. They took his fumblings in stride and smiled at his attempts to practice whatever he had recently learned on them, something he'd gotten in the habit of doing. Really, he thought he'd improved immensely since he'd first arrived in the small town, barely being able to say _konnichiwa._ It was definitely better than relying on a pitiful mixture of English and hand gestures, which he'd had to do to _get_ to Yu-topia in the first place.

Victor enjoyed every second of Yuuri teaching him how to say simple things and smiling as Victor parroted them back to him. He enjoyed listening to Yuuri speak to his family with rapid-fire fluency and being able to pick out the few words he knew. He enjoyed walking around town with Yuuri in the afternoons after skating practice and listening to Yuuri point to a tree, a house, a bridge, a shop, and tell Victor its Japanese name…

Yeah, after a while, Victor couldn't deny that he just liked listening to Yuuri.

As he'd fallen in love with the man, he'd fallen in love with the strange language that flowed from his mouth. And while he knew that his own attempts at speaking the language didn't hold a candle to Yuuri's native fluency, anything that could bring the two of them closer was a godsend.

And so, he tried. _Boy,_ he tried. There were a few things that made jumping from Russian to Japanese easier for him than he expected; Japanese grammar was surprisingly easy and the syllabic nature of the words made pronunciation easier than English. Victor supposed that the ease of speech made up for the _nightmare_ that looked like the Japanese writing system (three alphabets? One of which required knowing a thousand characters? Seriously?!), but that was nothing studying the language for a few more years couldn't fix. He wasn't going anywhere.

He should have known he'd slip-up eventually. He was a beginner, after all. He couldn't be expected to remember everything exactly as it was and communicate perfectly. It still didn't help when hindsight forced him to look back on all of the signs:

"Ah," he'd once said, as Yuuri had plucked up enough courage to show him some images of potential free skate costumes one afternoon, "Kirai desu!"

Yuuri had looked down at the image he had pointed at, frowning, "Oh, well." He set it aside and continued flipping through the rest, "There's also this one…"

(None of the designs Victor said he'd liked saw the light of day again.)

Another day, Victor had walked into a little shop in town. He often came with Yuuri to this store to get himself little ornaments, little pieces to decorate his room and make it feel more comfortable, but this was the first time he'd come alone. Could he do with that fan? That figuring? That pendant? Another painting? Another, smaller bust? There were so many beautiful things that were so quaintly _Japanese_ that he wished he could just buy every single item in the store.

"Kirai desu." He said to the shop owner after a few minutes of browsing, pointing to a glass vase with the most intricate design he'd ever seen painted onto it.

The young woman looked startled, but regained her composure quickly, "Ah."

After a few seconds of thinking, Victor nodded. He picked it up and turned to her, "Kore wa…hoshii desu." Was that right? How do you say 'I want to buy' again? "Ore wa…kaitai?"

The woman looked between the vase in his hands and his face, a strange look plastered on her face. But she slowly took the vase from him and took it to the little cashier in the corner of the room, taking some paper and wrapping it neatly.

Victor had no idea what that strange look had been for. Maybe she had still been confused. But still, he had gotten what he wanted so no harm, no foul, right?

And so, it continued. It didn't happen often, but it was still confusing whenever Victor would comment on something he admired, only for the person he was speaking to to react with varying degrees of surprise. Victor had learned, more or less from watching Yuuri, that the Japanese weren't super vocal or straightforward about what they wanted, or liked, or disliked. It was a cultural thing that Victor was willing to respect, having toned down his blunt, straightforwardness so that he wouldn't insult anyone. But surely they wouldn't react as if he was insulting them, right?

The last time it happened, about a month after it started, Victor made Yuuri cry.

It was supposed to be innocent. It was supposed to be a tad romantic. The two of them had decided to take a run by the beach one evening, which had turned into a walk on the beach once the two of them had gotten tired. It felt nice, just the two of them with sand between their toes, listening to the waves lazily crash over each other and onto the sand.

Victor had just happened to look over at the young man beside him. He'd taken in how beautiful Yuuri looked in the sunset's rays, and was suddenly overcome with the desire to speak his mind. Well…speak his mind in a way that he didn't _usually_ speak his mind.

(Yes, Victor did have some self-awareness. He knew perfectly well that he could sometimes get carried away).

He'd stop playing 'Victor the friendly neighborhood coach'. Now, it was time to be 'Victor the hopeless romantic'.

"Yuuri?"

"Hmmm?" the other man kept his head down, but he was definitely listening.

"I've been meaning to say something…"

Victor took a breath.

…

"Kirai desu."

Yuuri whipped around to him, confusion written all over his face, "What?"

Oh? Had he not been clear enough? "Yuuri wa kirai desu."

Yuuri stopped walking. Victor turned back to look at Yuuri, fully expecting the younger man to be smiling or blushing in the cute way he always did when Victor complimented him.

But Yuuri's brow was knitted into a frown. "Why would you say something like that?"

…

That…was not the reaction he'd been expecting.

"Because it's true."

The seconds ticked on. Yuuri's expression didn't change, and Victor wondered if he'd say any more.

"That's what you believe." Yuuri's voice came out quieter than before.

Was something wrong? "Yes."

Yuuri stared at him a little longer, before turning to look towards the sea, towards the horizon. "Oh."

Victor tilted his head in absolute confusion. What was going on? He'd only meant to make Yuuri happy and now…now he just seemed sad and oh my god is he crying?!

He was crying. Not a lot, but still…Victor didn't know how to _deal_ with crying.

"Yuuri?!" Now Victor was alarmed. What had he done?! "Please…please don't cry!"

Yuuri's voice was quiet, "How long have you felt this way?"

Victor took a step forward and put his hand on Yuuri's shoulder, before quickly removing it again when he felt Yuuri flinch.

"Will you be leaving?"

Victor's eyes widened. Where did _that_ come from?

"Wait, wait, wait. I don't think we're having the same conversation." Victor walked over to a nearby log and sat down, motioning for Yuuri to join him. After a second, Yuuri did, but he put more distance between them than usual.

Seeing this, Victor _had_ to continue, "What did I say to make you so sad?"

Yuuri wiped away the few tears that had trickled down his face, before staring pointedly into his lap, "Why would you say you hated me, just out of the blue? I don't know what I did, but I'll try to make it-"

Victor's heart dropped into his stomach. Oh, what _had_ he done? "Yuuri, no. I was trying to compliment you. I'm still getting the hang of my Japanese so I don't know if I pronounced it wrong but…"

Yuuri paused, finally looking up at Victor, "So you're telling me…that you meant to say _kirei_ instead of _kirai_?"

What?

Oh.

Oh!

 _Oh!_

If Victor's heart had been in the depths of his stomach before, then it had definitely just fallen out of his belly and landed in the sand.

Victor slowly raised his hands to cover his face, fighting the urge not to hit himself. If the ground could just swallow him up this very second, that would be _great_. But alas, nothing of the sort happened and Victor was left with his cheeks burning with the ferocity of a thousand suns.

"Hey." The voice beside him is soft, but Victor can still hear the beginnings of laughter bleeding through.

"Yuuri," Victor says through his fingers, "What have I done?"

"It was an honest mistake,"

"But I've been saying that _since the beginning!_ I accidentally told your mother I didn't like her _cooking_ yesterday!"

That, frustratingly enough, only made Yuuri's smile widen, "You _didn't_."

"I _did_."

"Well I'm sure you can apologize."

It was an honest mistake. It wasn't as if Victor had gone around for the last few months, randomly blurting out that he hated this and that…

Oh _no_!

"Yuuri, I- I feel like an idiot."

Yuuri glanced over at him, "That's nice to hear."

"Huh?" Victor snapped his head up to look at Yuuri, "Why do you say that?"

Yuuri turned away from Victor, but the older man could still see the tinge of red creeping up his cheeks, "Because it makes you, I don't know, less…perfect?"

He looked like he was fighting to speak his mind, so Victor stayed quiet, waiting patiently.

Eventually, Yuuri continued, "It's…it's like, you can make mistakes and feel embarrassed about it, like anyone else. It makes you more…human, I guess."

Did Victor want to tell Yuuri that he was pretty, before? What had he been thinking? Yuuri wasn't just _pretty_ , he was _beautiful, wonderful, amazing_. Was there anything that the man could say to _not_ make Victor fall head over heels for him?

"Aw, Yuuri ~!" Victor threw his arms around the man beside him, "You say the nicest things!"

Yuuri accepted his hug, and Victor suddenly wished that this moment would never end. The two of them, sitting there in front of the ocean, in the warmth of the setting sun and each other's arms?

Yeah, that would be perfect.

"But still," Victor said, breaking the silence, "It's a little worrying that I said I hated you and you immediately believed it."

Yuuri chuckled emotionlessly, "I guess a part of me still feels like I'm dreaming."

"Well I'm not going anywhere," Victor said, pulling back a little, "Didn't I say that I'd help you win the Grand Prix Final? I can't do that if I go back to St. Petersburg now. Besides," he smirked, "I like you too much to back out now."

Yuuri stared at Victor for a few seconds before standing up and offering his hand, "I guess I should thank you, then, for the compliment."

Victor took Yuuri's outstretched hand and got to his feet. Wiping sand from his pants, he smiled, "Well, I actually didn't get to compliment you. I ruined it by insulting you."

"So…?" Yuuri returned the smile, waiting. It was a rare smile that wasn't laced with self-doubt, just amusement, and Victor loved it.

He straightened his back and cleared his throat, "Katsuki Yuuri wa _kirei_ desu. There, I said it."

Yuuri laughed, "Thank you."

And with that, the two of them watched the last rays of daylight slip below the horizon.

And that was the last time Victor made a fool of himself trying to speak Japanese.

(Not.)

 **There you go. A short, funny fic about the pitfalls of the Japanese language. Thank you, Shiranai Atsune, for providing the prompt that inspired this, and I'm glad I got to write something more humorous than I would usually write.**


End file.
